The 2023–24 Egyptian League Cup was the third edition of the Egyptian League Cup, a cup knockout competition open to all clubs participating in the Egyptian Premier League. The competition began on 8 January, and concluded with the final on 7 August 2024.
Defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra successfully defended their title as they beat Tala'ea El Gaish 3–1 in the final, winning their second League Cup trophy and second major title in the club's history.[1]
Ceramica Cleopatra entered the tournament as the defending champion, having won the previous edition after beating Al Masry 4–1 in the final.[2]
Format
The format for the first edition of the competition was retained for this season. The tournament started with a group stage involving all participating teams split into four groups of four teams each, with the winners and runners-up of each group advancing to the next round. This round was played during the league's January/February break, due to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations taking place from 13 January to 11 February 2024.[3]
In the knockout stage round, matches are pre-determined. In the quarter-finals, teams advancing from Group A face teams from Group C, and teams from Group B face teams from Group D; and all matches are played on group winners' home venues; while the semi-finals and final are played on venues selected by the EPL. Similar to the group stage, the knockout stage, except the final, was played during the league's January/February break.
Starting from the knockout stage, matches are decided by penalties if teams are tied after 90 minutes.
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[4]
Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Draw of lots.
Prize money
On 11 September 2023, the prizes for the 2023–24 season were announced by the EPL. The winning team earn 1.5 million Egyptian pounds (LE), the runners-up receive 1 million LE, while the remaining 14 participating teams receive 100,000 LE. Any team that withdraws from the Egyptian League Cup will not receive the prizes for participation in the Egyptian Premier League, which are worth one million LE. If a team withdraws after the draw is held, an additional fine of one million LE would be applied.[5]
Al Ahly announced their withdrawal from the competition on 20 December 2023, citing injuries and tight schedule faced by the club in the last few weeks before the draw.[citation needed] On 26 December 2023, Zamalek also announced that they would not participate in the competition for this season.[citation needed]
Following the withdrawal of Al Ahly and Zamalek, the group stage was changed from three groups of six teams, to four groups of four teams. The 16 participating teams were separated into four pots, based on their league rankings in the previous season, except for the defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra, who topped pot 1.
The following is the bracket which the Egyptian League Cup resembles (excluding the group stage). Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of a penalty shoot-out.
